Two days after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi strongly criticized the ordinance to bail out convicted legislators Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Sunday heaped enough praise on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying he brought in many social welfare programmes that changed the face of the
nation.

Inaugurating the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Development Studies, a research centre to groom and mentor quality leaders, in Neyyar (on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram) she asked workers and leaders to reach out to common and make him aware of the many social welfare schemes introduced by the UPA government.

“We need more such programmes. Under the able leadership of Manohan Singh we can do it,” she said.

However, she skipped politics. Party workers were expecting that she would give a fitting reply to BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi, who raised a barrage of charges against the party in the Delhi rally.

On a two-day visit to Kerala, Sonia would be attending many functions including unveiling of a statue of former chief minister R Shankar.